AP National News

By MARÍA VERZA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano rumbled to life again this week, belching out towering clouds of ash that forced 11 villages to cancel school sessions. The residents weren’t the only ones keeping a close eye on the towering peak. Every time there is a sigh, tic or heave

By TOM BRECKENRIDGE of The Land Chronicle of Philanthropy CLEVELAND (AP) — Manufacturers in Cleveland and other cities, including Buffalo, Chicago, and Milwaukee, are dealing with a retiring workforce that’s left thousands of jobs unfilled. Nationally, the industry’s job gap is projected to hit 2 million by 2030, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Sean Penn strongly backed the current Hollywood screenwriters strike while speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, saying the dispute over Artificial Intelligence is “a human obscenity.” Penn addressed the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike in a press conference for his new film,

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Target is recalling almost 5 million candles over laceration and burn hazards, according to a Thursday notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall impacts some 4.9 million Threshold-branded glass jar candles sold in multiple sizes and various scents — including water mint and eucalyptus, apple blossom and

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA Associated Press KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A British mountain guide returned to Nepal’s capital on Friday after scaling Mount Everest for a 17th time, breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest mountain by a non-Sherpa guide. Kenton Cool first climbed Mount Everest in 2004 and has been

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Andy Rourke, bass guitarist of The Smiths, one of the most influential British bands of the 1980s, has died after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer, his former bandmate Johnny Marr said Friday. He was 59. In a lengthy post on Instagram, guitarist and songwriter Marr paid

BEIJING (AP) — China says Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Beijing next week for talks, marking the latest exchange in a relationship in which Russia is becoming increasingly reliant on China for economic and diplomatic support. Meanwhile, one of Beijing’s top diplomats at the U.N. again criticized Western arms sales to Ukraine, saying

By ZEKE MILLER, FOSTER KLUG and ELAINE KURTENBACH Associated Press HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday. “Our support for Ukraine will not

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon has received an Interpol notice for the country’s embattled central bank governor who failed to answer summons and show up in Paris earlier in the week for questioning in a graft case, officials said. France, Germany, and Luxembourg are investigating the governor, Riad Salameh, and his

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The official death toll from the powerful cyclone that struck Myanmar has burgeoned to at least 145, including 117 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, state television reported Friday. It said the figure applied to the western state of Rakhine, where Cyclone Mocha did the most damage,

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Police shocked a 95-year-old woman with a stun gun as she approached them using a walker and carrying a steak knife in an Australian nursing home, sending her to the hospital in critical condition after her head hit the floor. The extraordinary police takedown of Clare

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Arab leaders, joined by Syrian President Bashar Assad for the first time in more than a decade, were holding an annual summit Friday in Saudi Arabia, with a focus on Sudan and other conflicts. The meeting comes as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pursues

By PAOLO SANTALUCIA, SETH BORENSTEIN and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The floods that sent rivers of mud tearing through towns in Italy’s northeast are another drenching dose of climate change’s all-or-nothing weather extremes, something that has been happening around the globe, scientists say. The coastal region of Emilia-Romagna was twice struck, first

By ZEKE MILLER, FOSTER KLUG and ELAINE KURTENBACH Associated Press HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies huddled Friday to discuss new ways to punish Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday. Zelenskyy will be making

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina plans to begin airing TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire early next week as he prepares for an expected 2024 Republican presidential campaign. The ad buy, valued at about $5.5 million, is scheduled to run through the first

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Holding this week’s Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic bomb attack, is an attempt by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to promote an anti-nuclear message. For many survivors, it’s also a rare — and possibly final — chance to demonstrate

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and THEODORA TONGAS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greeks will head to the polls on Sunday to elect a leader who will have more control over the country’s economy for the first time in over a decade. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the 55-year-old conservative frontrunner who delivered better than expected economic